What Could Have Been
by megsyrosey
Summary: Peyton says yes in LA when Lucas proposed to her, but things are never the way they seem to be. A/U. Naley, Leyton flashbacks. Possibly Leyton.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! I know I haven't updated my other story lately but I'm kind of stuck with it right now! I'll upload a new chapter as soon as I think I write a good one! But, I hope you enjoy and be review it! Thanks (:

* * *

The last year of Peyton Sawyer's life was a whirlwind of many different emotions. She had been heartbroken, betrayed, destroyed, yet still found happiness and love in new things. Over a year ago Peyton had moved from LA to New York and moved in with her very famous, fashion designer best friend Brooke Davis. When she had moved in she was a brokenhearted, lost 22-year-old and was now a successful 24-year-old who had opened her own record label with the help of her best friend. But, there was still something missing, from both of their lives. New York was great for both of the girls, but it wasn't home. That's when they finally decided that they could do what they were doing in New York in their home, Tree Hill.

They girls had packed up their lives in Brooke's BMW SUV and road tripped down to Tree Hill. The only person who knew was Karen since she was renting the space out in Tric for Peyton's office and studio for her label but that's it.

They had just made it into North Carolina. Brooke is behind the wheel, taking a sip from her starbucks cup. Peyton's barefeet are on the dashboard as she looks out the window. "Do you think we're doing the right thing? Coming back?" She asks as she looks at the brunette.

Brooke groans. "You know, it would have been nice to think about that before we packed up our lives and rented a beautiful new beach house." Brooke jokes with her best friend. "I think it's the best thing we can do right now.. It will get you out of this funk you're in."

The rest of the drive is quiet. Once they pull up to their new home they unpack the car and get everything into the huge house. The first day they're there they spend it unpacking, getting the living room, kitchen, and their bedrooms done. "Okay, that's enough for now. Let's go to Tric and check out that new office of yours." Brooke says to the messy looking blonde.

"As long as I can get some drinks in me, I'll be happy." Peyton says as Brooke nudges her. They part their ways and get ready. About an hour later they meet back up in the living room. Brooke's short brown hair curled with a tight black dress that has a cutout in the back and white pumps. Peyton had not really fixed her hair, she had let her soft curls lay naturally. They weren't nearly as curly as they used to be. Peyton had on tight bootcut jeans with holes in the knees, a tight purple tank top and a small black vest on with black peep toe heels on.

The girls get in the cab that's outside waiting for them. "No breaking down or freaking out tonight." Brooke jokes with the blonde as she looks at her best friend, nodding. "Peyton, come on… We need to get you happy again."

"Brooke, I am happy." She says as she adds a smile to the end of it. They pull up to Tric, only a few cars out front, none that neither of them recognize. Peyton thanks god silently as they get out, walking up the stairs to the club that is scattered with people. First thing first they head to the office that's now Peyton's. Peyton opens the large door to a huge empty space; a huge smile grows on her face. "God, I can't believe Karen agreed to this." She says as her and Brooke walk around the office.

"Come on, she thinks of you as a daughter." Brooke instantly regrets saying that. "You know, you always went to her for advice." She adds quickly.

Peyton laughs softly, nodding in agreement. "Nice save, B." She winks at her as they walk out of the office, she shuts and locks the door behind them. They head to the bar after they leave the office, they sit on the stools. Brooke orders wine while Peyton goes for something stronger. "Anything with vodka." She tells the bartender as he laughs and nods.

Peyton has been sitting at the same stool for an hour. Brooke has gotten up, talking to people they went to high school with. She downs her drink in front of her, signaling the bartender for another. "So, are you new to town?" He asks her as she shrugs.

"I grew up here." She says as he leans against the bar, nodding. "Just came back today, actually. Needed a change of scenery."

The bartender nods. "Where's the husband?" He asks as he points to her left ring finger with the nicely sized diamond ring on it. Peyton looks down at it, playing with it a little bit.

"No more husband… I just keep it on to scare off the creeps." She shoots him a look as she laughs, moving the ring to the other hand. "I'm Peyton." She says, putting her hand out.

"Owen." He shakes her hand. "So, drowning your sorrows, huh?" He raises an eyebrow as she shrugs, taking a drink of the mixed drink in front of her.

"Not necessarily. Just enough to get a good buzz going." She says as she hears Brooke scream, running over to the door. Her eyes shoot over seeing Haley and Nathan walk in. Just as she's about to stand up she sees Lucas walk in, hand in hand with his editor, Lindsey. "Now, I'm drowning my sorrows." She says, downing the drink. "How about something stronger… Let's get some tequila in the mix." She tells Owen as he raises his eyebrows and nods, making her a drink and pushing it in front of her.

Brooke hugs Nathan and Haley. "It's so good to see you guys!" She squeals. She quickly sees Lucas walk in with a beautiful blonde on his arm, she smiles at them before looking over at Peyton who's still at the bar, looking over at them.

"What are you doing here?" Haley asks surprised to see the brunette. "Oh my gosh. Brooke, this is Lindsey… She and Lucas are together." Haley introduces Brooke to the tall blonde.

"Hi, Lindsey." Brooke says, shaking her hand. "Me and Peyton just moved back!" She says as Haley gasps, hugging Brooke again.

"You guys moved back?" Lucas says, trying not to show his emotions on his face. Brooke nods at him. "That's great… Is Peyton here tonight?" He asks as Brooke points over to the blonde at the bar, drinking and talking to the bartender.

Lucas nods as the group grabs a table, he and Nathan walk to get the women drinks. "So, Peyton's in town." Nathan says as they walk to the bar, at the end as they see Peyton downing a drink, looking down at the bar. "You know how hard this has to be for her? To see you here with Lindsey?" Nathan says as Lucas nods. "I'm gonna go say hello." He says to his older brother. "Well, well, well. Peyton Sawyer." He says as she looks up, a huge smile growing on her face.

"Nathan." She says as she stands up, hugging him tight, he lifts her off the ground. "God, I've missed you so much." She says as they pull back from the hug. "How's Jamie? How's Haley? Is she here?" She acts like she hasn't already seen them, she sits back down on the barstool with a bunch of empty shot glasses are and two empty glasses.

"Sawyer, you need to slow down." He says as she shots him a look, making him stop. "Yeah, Haley's sitting over at the table… Brooke found us." He says as she nods. "What made you guys come back for?" He asks as she sighs.

"I felt like I was missing a piece of me." She says as he sits beside her, Lucas carrying the drinks back to the table where his girlfriend and sister-in-law are talking to one of his good friends. "And I can't fill all of it, but being back here I think is going to help." She tells the brunette man sitting beside her. "How is he?" She asks as he's shocked, taking a drink from his beer.

"He's better.. He's coaching the ravens with me and…" He stops and sighs, taking a long drink from his beer.

"With Lindsey, right?" She says as he nods slowly. "I could see it coming." Peyton puts her head in her hands, shaking her head. "So stupid, I'm so fucking stupid." She says as he looks at her. She pulls off her old engagement ring. "I still wear this, you know? Kind of like, maybe we'll get back together but we're different people now." She puts it on the bar. "It must be time to give it back since he's moved on." She sighs.

Nathan stands up, sighing as he hugs Peyton, kissing the top of her head. "You need to talk to him." He says as he hears her sigh. "You can come over and sit with us, if you want." He says as he hears a laugh. "Yeah, I thought so." He says.

"I'm going to leave… I'm tired anyway.. I'll probably walk back home." She says, "I need to tell Brooke I'm leaving though." She stands up with the tall man. "I'll walk you to your table." She nudges him as she walks over to the table of everyone she knows.

Haley stands up as she sees Peyton, hugging her. "It's so good to see, Peyton!" She says as Peyton smiles, hugging her tight.

"It's great to see you too, Hales." She whispers to the shorter brunette, she pulls back from the hug, not looking at the couple sitting at the other side of the table. "Brooke, I'm gonna get going." She says as Brooke nods, telling her she'll see her later. Peyton nods, smiling as she says bye to her friends, walking out of the club quickly before Lucas could say anything.

Lucas stands up, telling everyone he'll be back as he walks out of the club, seeing the blonde at the bottom of the stairs. "Peyton." He shouts as she keeps her back to him, walking through the parking lot. He runs down the stairs and catches up with her. "Peyton, you need to talk to me."

Peyton laughs, shaking her head as she stops walking, her back to him still. "Talk to you?" She says. "I don't need to talk to you." She says, closing her eyes. "I saw that you and Lindsey are together… I'm happy for you guys." She finally turns around, looking up into the blue eyes she still loves. "I hope you guys are happy." She says as she looks down.

"Peyton, can you please talk to me." He says as she rolls her eyes. "We haven't talk in so long." He puts his hands in his pockets.

"One year, seven months and ten days." She whispers, looking down at her feet. "I don't know what we can talk about." She says, pulling her engagement ring off her hand. "You should take this back though… I can't keep it." She says, grabbing his hand and putting the ring in his hand, closing it, tears building up in her eyes.

"Peyton." He says as she kisses his hand before turning around and walking away from him. He calls her name over and over again as she walks down the road, tears rolling down her face.


	2. Chapter 2

Peyton quickly made her way to her new house. Showering and changing into her pajamas before putting on a peach and white stripped robe and sitting on the swing on the front porch of her home. Her whole life she wanted a swing on her porch of her dream home, but this place was far from her dream home. Yes, it was beautiful but if you would have told her she'd be a single workaholic divorcee at the ripe age of 24 she would have never believed you. She often thinks to herself how her life got this way, how she became so lonely. Peyton's legs are up on the swing as it swings slightly with the wind. Being back home felt almost surreal, but with everything that has gone on over the last 3 years, it's where she needed to be.

She hears a car pull into the driveway and sees it park, she doesn't really think anything of it since she is living with Brooke Davis. But as a tall figure walks up the steps to the porch she snaps out of her thoughts, the dim light that she had turned on to the porch showed the dark-haired man. "What are you doing here, Nate?" Peyton asks softly as he walks over to the swing, sitting on it beside her as he pushes it slightly. "Why aren't you home with your wife and son?" She hesitates as she says son, looking down at her bare legs as she pulls them closer to her.

"That's why." He says, noticing her pull her legs up as she looks over at him. "I hate to break it to you Peyton, but we dated for two years and even if don't think so, I know all your little quirks and what you do when you're sad or pissed off." He stops as she rolls her eyes, making him laugh. "The infamous Peyton Sawyer eye roll.. Classic."

She clenches her jaw before laughing softly. "Nate, what are you doing here really?" She asks him as he pulls her into him. "I'm okay, I'm just tired from unpacking all day." She says, knowing he can tell she's lying.

"Lucas said you gave your engagement ring back." He looks at her. "Why?" He watches as she squirms a little bit, getting closer to him. Her hand runs over her face as she sighs.

"We're not married anymore. There's no reason for me to keep the ring.. Keith would want him to give it to the woman he's going to spend the rest of his life with." She feels tears filling her eyes. For the last year, she has pushed all those memories to the back of her mind and most of the time she could keep in the back of her mind, until she got into bed at least. That's where she usually broke down. But, her first day back in Tree Hill, sitting on her front porch with her ex-boyfriend and ex-brother-in-law the tears flowed heavily. "Everything just went so wrong, Nathan." She says in between sobs as he nods, putting her head on his shoulder. "I thought I'd still be married to the man of my dreams with a three-year-old right now."

He ran his fingers through her wet hair as she cried on his shoulder, his shirt soaked in tears. "Peyton, Keith would have wanted you to have the ring. Karen was so happy when he gave you that ring.. He bought another ring for you then she said you deserved the ring Keith gave her." He tells the blonde as she broke down on his shoulder. "He was so happy when you said yes, Peyton. I remember the call we got the next morning."

 _Nathan and Haley were rushing around the house, grabbing toys, diapers, and snacks as they threw them into the diaper bag. They were both running late to class and they still had to drop their son off at the daycare center. As soon as they were about to head out they heard the home phone ringing. Nathan looked at his wife as she walked to it. "Haley, we're going to be late.. Let it go to voicemail."_

 _Haley shook her head as she picked up the phone. "Hello? Hey Luke… She did?! Oh my god! Congratulations!" She looked at her husband as she mouthed 'she said yes' to him. He shut the door, realizing that this was more important to class._

Peyton groaned at the man. "Yeah, well why is he with Lindsey then? I'm still mourning over our marriage… And daughter." Peyton says, biting the inside of her cheek. All the man could do is nod, he couldn't imagine what she was going through.

Peyton had found out she was pregnant right after her and Lucas got back from their honeymoon. Lucas was so happy, he had always wanted to have a family with this curly haired blonde and now it was coming true. The whole pregnancy was completely normal, the little girl was perfect size the whole time. When they found out they were having a girl, everyone was so excited. I don't think as excited as Brooke, but pretty damn close. The delivery of the baby was super smooth and soon they had a healthy, beautiful girl that they decided to name Elizabeth Marie Scott. They had been the perfect little family, even though they lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment in LA.

A week before Elizabeth's first birthday the couple had put her down for a nap in the middle of their bed. Peyton worked on some work she had brought home and Lucas was working on his finalized copy of his book. It was unlike Elizabeth to take a nap longer than an hour, so when hour two rolled around Peyton decided to go wake her up. Peyton walked into their room, laying on the bed beside the baby, rubbing the baby's belly. She screamed for Lucas as she realized the baby wasn't breathing, her lips and face blue. At that time, both of their whole lives crashed around them.

Nathan let the blonde cry like she had never cried before on his shoulder for about an hour until the crying stopped and she had seemed to fall asleep. He pulled her into him so she would be comfortable and warm as the wind got cooler as it got later.

Brooke gets out of the cab and sees an SUV in her driveway, walking up the steps she sees Nathan holding her sleeping best friend. Brooke cocked her head to the side as she put a sad smile on her face. "I knew this was going to happen when we got back." She said softly. "Thank you so much for being here for her." She says as he nods, picking her up swiftly, bridal style as Brooke opened the unlocked door and let him upstairs to where her room is. He put her on the bed and walked to Brooke.

"She's going to be a mess for a while." He says as Brooke nods.

"When she moved in with me she would never talk to me about it." She admits as they stand in the hallway. "She didn't talk to anyone about it… Lucas called her every day for the first month and she'd never answer it… I think she blames herself for the death of Elizabeth." She tells the tall man as he nods.

"She definitely does even though it's not. I can't even imagine how she feels." Nathan says as they walk down the stairs. They hug before he leaves. Brooke changes into pajamas and decides to sleep with Peyton tonight. The brunette lays on the other side of the bed as she pulls the half asleep blonde near her. "Don't fight it.. You need someone and I'm here for you, P." She whispers as Peyton nods, melting into her best friend as she starts to cry silently again for a little while before falling back to sleep.

The next morning Brooke wakes up to the doorbell ringing, luckily Peyton had been so tired last night she didn't move at the sound. Brooke crossed her arms as she walked through the cold house, opening the front door to see Lucas. "What are you doing here, Luke?" She asks, standing to the side to let him into the house.

Lucas walked into the house, his hands in his pockets as he looks around. "Wow, this house screams Brooke Davis." He tells the brunette as she laughs, shrugging a little as they walk into the kitchen, he sits that the island as she makes coffee. "Is Peyton still asleep?" He asks the brunette with her back to him as she nods.

"Why?" She turns around, a coffee cup in her hand. She puts it down, sliding it to him as he thanks her silently. "She broke down last night… I've never seen her like that.. Not even after her mom or Ellie died." She says with a sad look on her face before taking a long drink from the cup in her hands.

"I really just want to talk to her. We're both dealing with this and she's shutting me out like I didn't lose a daughter and the love of my life." He says, looking down at the black coffee in the cup in front of him.

"Well, I think you and Lindsey being together doesn't help her." She says as he sighs, nodding. "Why are you with her anyway?"

He sighs, looking up at Brooke. "She was there when I needed someone… She was just a friend at first. Her and Peyton got really close when we were married." Lucas sighs. "It was just a friendship that went further.. It's only been a few months, it's nothing serious." He takes a long drink of his coffee. "I need to give Peyton something though. Can I just…" He stops as Brooke nods. "Second door on the right." She smiles at him as he nods, standing up and walking up the stairs.

He walks into the room, seeing the messy haired girl sleeping the way she always had. She somehow always got all of the comforter, wrapped herself up like a burrito in it, but left a leg out for "temperature regulation" she always told him, and soft snores coming out of the woman felt like home to him. He had to fight back with all of his might to not get into the bed with her, hold her, and let her cry it out.

He walked around her room silently, looking at all the boxes, none of them her records. After Elizabeth died she took out all of her records from their apartment and put them in storage. She told him music didn't sound the same now. He looks at the blonde again, sighing as he puts an envelope on the bed right beside her, pushing her hair out of her face and kissing her forehead before walking back downstairs, saying goodbye to Brooke and leaving.

About an hour later Peyton woke up in the bed, her head throbbing from being dehydrated from both the alcohol and the crying she did last night. She sits up, looking around the large room that her bed's right in the middle of, then at the bed she's alone in. Soon, she sees a white envelope beside her with 'Peyton Scott' written on it in Lucas' handwriting.


End file.
